Abstract
Separate groups of college students (n = 20 per group) were administered either an explicit memory task: (free recall, FR, or cued recall, CR) or an implicit memory task (word-stem completion, WSC) for a list of previously studied words. Primacy and recency effects were observed for the subjects performing the FR task. A recency effect, but not a primacy effect, was displayed for the subjects performing the CR and WSC tasks. Within the WSC condition, the test-aware subjects displayed a greater amount of priming than did the test-unaware subjects. Furthermore, the test-aware subjects in the WSC condition displayed a smaller amount of priming than the subjects in the CR condition.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. In G. W. Bower (Ed.), Human memory: Basic processes. New York: Academic Press.
Bowers, J. S., & Schacter, D. L. (1990). Implicit memory and test awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 404–416.
Fitzgerald, J. M. (1988). Vivid memories and the reminiscence phenomenon. Human Development, 31, 260–270.
Howard, D. (1988).Implicit and explicit assessment of cognitive aging. In M. L. Howe & C. J. Brainerd (Eds.), Cognitive development in adulthood: Progress in cognitive development research (pp. 3–37). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Hunt, R. R., & Toth, J. P. (1990). Perceptual identification, fragment completion, and free recall: Concepts and data. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 282–290.
Kucera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
Pillemer, D. B., Goldsmith, L. R., Panter, A. T., & White, S. H. (1988). Very long-term memories of the first year in college. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 14, 709–715.
Roediger, H. L., III (1990). Implicit retention without remembering. American Psychologist, 45, 1043–1056.
Schacter, D. L. (1987). Implicit memory: History and current status. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 13, 501–518.
Schacter, D, L. (1990). Perceptual representation systems and implicit memory: Toward a resolution of the multiple memory systems debate. In A. Diamond (Ed.), Development and the neural bases of higher cognitive function (pp. 543–571). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Schacter, D. L., Bowers, J. S., & Booker, J. (1989).Intention, awareness, and implicit memory: The retrieval intentional criterion. In S. Lewandowsky, J. Dunn, & K. Kirsner (Eds.), Implicit memory: Theoretical issues (pp. 47–65). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Squire, L. R. (1987). Memory and brain. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tulving, E., & Schacter, D. L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Science, 247, 301–306.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rybash, J.M., Osborne, J.L. Implicit memory, the serial position effect, and test awareness. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 29, 327–330 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333934
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333934